I am SO ready for WARMTH—and creative fertility. The vernal equinox is a pivotal point for me; the end of a killer New England winter, and the tentative beginning of a whole new year. I see the spring equinox as the true New Year’s Day, as it really is a time of rebirth, renewnal, and balance— the sun is directly over the equator, and daylight hours are equal to nighttime hours. (Equinox= equal night, Latin.) On the exact day of the equinox, one can try to balance an egg on its end. Seriously. Lots more is associated with the vernal equinox, especially creativity—eggs, bunnies and fertility and sex and so on; I love this stuff. It’s also a great time to begin spring cleaning, like maybe in the studio. Ha…

this is actually a very clean desk, with a 12×12″ panel ready to be attacked

I actually did a mini clean-up in my studio today, because I couldn’t even see my desk, and had a yen to actually use it to sit at and paint something small. This blog is called Cleaning Up the Studio, but that is a very rare occurrence in my studio practice, as I tend to let things pile up organically until I can’t stand it anymore, and then something new happens— like the urge to start some small paintings after working like crazy on large ones for weeks.

This is a large recent painting–“New Territory”, 53×65″. Mixed media on Fabriano paper, held on to the wall with applied magnets.

 Big work can be exciting and challenging, but tiring. Picking up small brushes and using little dabs of paint is a completely different challenge. It’s about balance. Thank the gods and goddesses for Spring- It’s about time, too !

the very beginning of today’s little painting.. .we’ll see how it turns out

…and here is a clean studio wall, with a 48×48″ four-panel ready to be attacked, when I get tired of playing small